Open AccessUSING THE THEORY OF REASONED ACTION TO PREDICT SMOKING INTENTION AMONG NON-SMOKING SECONDARY SCHOOL GOING ADOLESCENTS IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA
Author(s) -
Kuang Hock Lim,
Hui Li Lim,
Sumarni Mohd Ghazali,
Chee Cheong Kee,
Mohd Zainuldin Tain,
Yoon Ling Cheong,
Yong Kang Cheah,
Syazwan Aizat Ismail,
Pei Pei Heng,
Jia Hui Lim
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
malaysian journal of public health medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.16
H-Index - 9
ISSN - 1675-0306
DOI - 10.37268/mjphm/vol.21/no.2/art.521
Subject(s) - psychology , structural equation modeling , theory of reasoned action , descriptive statistics , norm (philosophy) , smoke , social influence , social psychology , theory of planned behavior , variance (accounting) , developmental psychology , statistics , mathematics , geography , political science , meteorology , law , business , control (management) , management , accounting , economics
The study aims to determine the relationship of attitude and social-norm with the intention to smoke in the future among non-smoking youth. Data were derived from a study on smoking among form four students in a selected secondary school in Peninsular Malaysia, which utilised a pre-validated questionnaire to obtain data from the selected respondents. Descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used in data analysis. The study revealed independent variables accounted for 22.6% of the variance in intention to initiate smoking and the model had a good fit. A significant relationship was observed between subjective norm and intention to initiate smoking (R=0.46). The study revealed that attitude and social norm substantially explained intention to smoke among non-smoking adolescents. Future measures should concentrate on correcting the subjective norms to reduce the intention to initiate smoking among non-smoking youth.